Reflections
by SunnyZim
Summary: The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes (Voltaire). Oliver's life has changed since he met Felicity. Oliver's POV. Olicity.


**Author's Note: ****So it's been a while since I have written fanfiction, but Olicity has awoken the sleeping dragon of inspiration again! All I can say is that I really hope they become endgame because I am in love with this couple and their dynamic and alas, there is no going back for me! I hope you enjoy this little piece and I would love to hear your thoughts;-)**

**Reflections**

_The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes_

_~Voltaire~_

Before he met her, there was not much sunshine in his world. 5 years fighting for his life pretty much obliterated most light, like his own personal dark cloud. His mind was not a nice place to be and whilst he was good at pretending most of the time, there was always the fear that one day Thea or Laurel or his mother would look into his eyes and flee from what they saw there: numbness, cynicism, despair. But most of all, Death. Death of his father, who put him on this path. Death of Yao Fei who taught him how to live. Death of Shado, who taught him how to fight and whose only crime was that she was not Sara. Death of Slade, who taught him how to betray his friends. But then, he already knew how to do that, didn't he? And death of all the people he had killed as the vigilante. Every time Oliver looked in the mirror, he saw Death staring back at him. But Felicity changed that.

It started with making him smile. Oliver couldn't remember the last time he had smiled, _really _smiled, before he walked into her office and watched her stumbling over her words, all blushes and cute awkwardness. As he watched her scramble to regain some semblance of composure, he felt his lips inadvertently turn upwards, muscles almost creaking from disuse. She brought a tiny bit of brightness into his day and for that he was grateful. Apart from her obviously useful computer skills, the fact that she lightened that load he carried around with him, even ever so slightly, made him want to see her again. And so he found himself hatching up all kinds of reasons to see her. Suddenly she was indispensable to him, she whom he had never needed before.

However, it didn't stop there. Despite her blonde hair colour and her tendency to babble, Felicity was not taken in by the numerous (admittedly lame) lies he told her. She saw right through him and yet _she still helped him._ She even brought him his mother's notebook, knowing nothing about him or what he might do with that information. Which meant that when he was shot by said mother, it was a no brainer as to who he would go to for help. Because she trusted him. She didn't really know him, she could see through his lies, and yet somehow, for some strange reason, she _trusted him. _And in a world where trust was a rare commodity, that meant everything.

And so she became a part of his team, a part of his life, she who was only ever meant to have been a temporary means to an end. And suddenly, the lair didn't seem so empty. A place that had been quiet and filled with painful memories was now filled with the sound of typing and awkward babbling. Babbling that helped drown out the sound of death and guilt and pain. Even Diggle hadn't managed to drown that out because let's face it, Diggle wasn't much of a talker. But Felicity was, and what may have irritated some people was balm on Oliver's sore heart and aching mind.

And suddenly he had a family. Of course there was his real family, Thea and his mother, but they didn't know about Oliver the Vigilante. They only knew about Oliver the Playboy and Oliver the Man Who Had Returned From The Island Not Quite The Same. Diggle and Felicity knew _him_ and still accepted him, still cared about him. They could see the death in his eyes and they didn't look away, they didn't run for the hills. And the more time he spent with them the more he realised that this family mattered as much as his other family did. This was Slade and Shado all over again, getting him through the day, giving him strength to carry on, and yet they were better than Slade and Shado because there wasn't the same angst and bitterness and loss. There was brightness and humour and accountability. They called him out on his mistakes but didn't leave him. They helped him and expected nothing in return. This was family as it was meant to be.

The two of them made him feel like he was worth caring about, not the hopeless case he had once believed himself to be. Dig helped him keep his feet firmly on the ground and Felicity…Felicity had seen him at his worst and yet she still looked at him with love in her eyes. She called him a _hero _when everyone else was reviling him and held him accountable where others would stay silent. She was the indomitable ray of sunlight piercing the dense cloud around him. She was everything he needed and everything he felt he didn't deserve.

And, despite the life that he led, despite the dark memories from his past, one day when he looked in the mirror he saw Life staring back at him.


End file.
